I'm Trying To Get To You
by ako94
Summary: What if Padme hadn't traded Grievous for Anakin in The Clone Wars Episode Shadow Warrior?
1. Chapter 1

"Wheresa Ani? He's been gone, muy long time!" Jar Jar Binks asked Padmé Amidala as they stood in the underwater Gungan medical facility on Naboo.

"I'm not sure, Jar Jar," Padmé sighed. Her husband, Anakin Skywalker had gone off in pursuit of Risha Loo, who had been trying to arrange an alliance with the Separatists, against the Naboo. He had been gone for quite some time and she had begun to worry. Suddenly, her comlink chirped. "Anakin!" she breathed in relief, and answered it. But it wasn't Anakin. It was Count Dooku.

"Senator Amidala, we meet again." He said in his low voice. "I must regretfully inform you that young Skywalker has been detained.

Padmé scowled, "What have you done with Anakin?"

"Now, now, Senator, let's not become emotional," The Count teased.

"What do you want, Dooku?" Padmé was fed up with his games.

"I'm glad you asked. I could be persuaded to return Skywalker to you in exchange for…General Grievous?" The Count offered. The Gungans had captured the cyborg, General Grievous, earlier that day.

Padme was conflicted, "I…I can't do that, I'm sorry."

"You soon will be…" Dooku threatened. Behind him, where Anakin was being held in a force field, she saw two Magnaguards stab him in the torso with their electrostaffs. Bolts of electricity coursed through the young Jedi and he screamed in agony.

"Stop!" Padmé pleaded, "You cannot torture a prisoner!"

"Torture?" Dooku feigned ignorance, "I don't know what you mean!" He held up a finger. "I'll give you an hour to consider my proposition, I'm sure you will make the right choice." The transmission ended.

Padmé turned back to Jar Jar who looked sad. "Yousa have to trade with him," The Gungan told her.

"I can't, Jar Jar… with Grievous captured, we could win the war."

"But—But Padmé, hesa our friend."

"I know," the young senator sighed, "I know Jar Jar, but this war has gone on long enough." She pressed a few buttons on her comlink up popped a holo of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin's best friend and mentor.

"Hello, Senator!" He greeted with a smile.

"Obi-Wan, I need your help! We've captured Grievous, but Dooku has Anakin. He won't return him unless we return Grievous but," She paused, still troubled. "We could end this war right now with Grievous."

"And you've called upon me to retrieve Anakin from Dooku?" Obi-Wan guessed with a wry smile. Padmé gave a small nod. "I'm not sure Anakin is going to like this but, we do need to win this war." Obi-Wan said. He noticed her worried look. "Don't worry, Anakin will be okay, he's strong. Just worry about getting Grievous to Coruscant." The holotransmission ended and Padmé sighed.

"We've located them!" A clone trooper reported as a few LAAT/i gunships landed in front of the Gungan army on Naboo.

Padmé was standing off to the side watching the droid general be escorted onto a gunship and taken away when another clone came up to her. She recognized the markings on his helmet. "Senator, we've been given orders to get you back to Coruscant."

Padmé nodded, "Captain Rex, what's going on here? Why are there so many troops?" She asked.

"General Kenobi is here, we're going to find General Skywalker." Just then, she saw Kenobi and Anakin's padawan, Ahsoka run up to them.

"Senator Amidala!" the sixteen-year-old Togruta exclaimed.

"Padmé, are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked. Padmé nodded.

"Where's Master Skywalker?" Ahsoka inquired, clearly concerned about her master.

Padmé bit her lip, "Dooku has him… we captured Grievous and Dooku lured An—Master Skywalker into a trap. He has him now. He offered a bargain, but we need Grievous to win this war."

Ahsoka went through emotions of sad to angry. "You let him keep Master Skywalker! Why? You could have let Grievous go and captured him another way! Master Skywalker could have captured him! If he was free!"

Obi-Wan scowled at the young girl, "Ahsoka! Mind your words, young one and be mindful of your feelings. Senator Amidala did what she thought was best for the Republic in this war. This will give us quite a leg up in the war." He looked over at Padmé and saw she was trying extremely hard not to cry. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he said, "Don't worry, go with the clones back to Coruscant, we'll take it from here." Padmé nodded and got on the gunship.

Once she was out of earshot, Obi-Wan turned to Ahsoka, "Ahsoka, be careful of what you say, you've upset the senator quite a bit. It was a hard decision for her to give up one of her friends to the Separatists. I know you're worried about Anakin, but try to be more sensitive next time." Ahsoka nodded, looking far off in the distance.

"I sense something… Dooku."

Once she was on the gunship, Padmé turned to one of the clones. "Take me to Theed, I need to deal with some personal business."

"But Senator—"

"Don't make me make it an order," Padme said, tiredly. The trooper nodded and told the pilot.

"Look there goes his ship!" Ahsoka pointed into the sky as she and Obi-Wan walked through the woods to Dooku's last known location.

"Blast! He's heading for Theed!" Obi-Wan grumbled and contacted Cody on his comlink. "Cody, this is General Kenobi, Dooku's ship looks to be heading for Theed, we're gonna need some transport to come pick us up. I'm sending you my coordinates."

"Very good, General."

Ahsoka was sitting on a rock nearby. "Master, would you have traded Anakin for Grievous?"

Obi-Wan looked down at the padawan and sighed before giving an honest answer. "Yes, I probably would have. Senator Amidala did the right thing, though. She and Anakin have been good friends since he was just a boy and I could tell it was anything but easy for her."

"Yeah, they're really funny together. Master Skywalker doesn't have many other friends besides you or the Senator though. She seems to be the only politician he talks to."

"Yes, well, you see, Anakin met the senator when she was the queen of Naboo, and she had a decoy so he didn't know she was the queen. He became… infatuated with her as a boy. I keep telling him to be mindful, that attachments are forbidden, but that seems to be a hard thing for him to grasp, especially since he grew up with his mother."

Ahsoka looked up. "Oh, well yeah that must be hard, but he's sworn his life to the Jedi but he can still be friends with a politician right?"

"Yes, I suppose." Obi-Wan concluded as a gunship landed in front of them and they hopped on and were whisked away to Naboo's capital city.


	2. Chapter 2

Anakin Skywalker hung once again in another force field in a windowless room. Dooku had released him from the binding, rendered him unconscious, moved him to a different location, where, he didn't know, and of course, another force field had been waiting for him. Currently, Dooku was pacing around Anakin with a smug look on his face.

"Master Skywalker, it seems that Senator Amidala declined my offer to set you free. Pity. I thought you were friends." Anakin hadn't been listening to much Dooku had been saying but he heard that. He heard it because it hurt. Padmé had said no. His wife. Padmé had watched him be tortured and howl in pain and agony and she still had said no. He could capture Grievous any other time! He could be spending precious time with Padme but she had impeded that. She knew that he would have saved her in a heartbeat. He'd chosen her over everything before when she and Jar Jar were being electrocuted, and let Dr. Vindi get away with a vial of the Blue Shadow Virus. That's what it meant to be married, for or better or for worse. He wanted to throw up.

Later that evening, Padmé walked through the dimly lit streets of Theed to her parent's house after much protest with the clones that insisted she have an escort. The whole day, she had been holding back tears for Anakin who was surely being tortured at the hands of Dooku. Now, she let the silent tears fall freely for her husband.

She felt horrible, Anakin was surely being tortured at that very moment and it was all her fault. He didn't deserve this. She had tried to convince herself that she was doing this to end the war so he could come home to her and not have to be out on the battlefield halfway across the galaxy for months at a time, but what Ahsoka had said to her really made her feel guilty. She should have traded.

Padmé was lost in her thoughts when suddenly she was hit with something durasteel and was knocked unconscious.

"Master, how will we know how to find Dooku?" Ahsoka asked, looking up at her the Jedi Master. They were currently walking the streets of Theed.

"A combination of the Force and clone intel," Obi-Wan replied simply and Ahsoka followed him as they continued their search for Anakin.

Anakin Skywalker was limply sitting up against the cold duracrete wall in the cell Dooku had tossed him in, once the count had felt he'd tortured him enough for one day. Earlier, Anakin had come to terms with Padmé's decision. It still hurt to know she had chosen winning the war over saving him, but then remembered that their marriage was a secret. She always told him duty comes first. So maybe he was wrong to always choose her over everything else. Whatever. He didn't care anymore. He was in so much throbbing pain and was sore from head to toe that he didn't care about anything except getting back home to her. He hadn't been away from her for that long, he had gone months without seeing her, but somehow he missed her then more than ever.

A shuffling sound partially woke Anakin from his sleep. The noise seemed to be coming from outside the cell. He heard a hiss and opened his non-blackened right eye halfway, struggling to keep it open. A bright, white light blinded him as guards opened the cell door. There was some struggling and he saw a figure being pushed into his cell and the door close again. Had Anakin been more awake, he would have said something, or paid more attention, but he was fading in and out of consciousness, so he succumbed to sleep.

Only to be woken up by someone shaking him gently.

"Anakin! Ani, wake up… Anakin, please." He knew that beautiful voice. He slowly opened his right eye and looked up. It was none other than his wife.


End file.
